THE LIGHT WITHIN
ΤΟ ΜΕΣΑ ΦΩΣ
Feature-length documentary · 92′ · 2015
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Synopsis
Giorgis Markakis, a doctor and founder of the Museum of Traditional Cretan Life “Lychnostatis,” unfolds before the camera a portrait of a life that moves between memory, nature and time. He speaks of his grandfather Miliotoyannis, of the family home, of his relationship with light, with the eye and the tear, of the founding of the Museum, of the people, the objects, the traces that remain.
His narration is not organized as a biography but as lived experience: as a way of seeing the world, of standing before life and death, of recognizing the value of things not by their usefulness, but by the love that has been given to them.
The Light Within is a cinematic portrait of the memory that dwells in people and in things, of knowledge passed on without didacticism, and of that light which does not come from outside but is cultivated silently over time.
Film credits
- Genre
- Feature-length documentary
- Running time
- 92′
- Year
- 2015
- Direction – Screenplay – Sound recording
- Stavros Psillakis
- Cinematography
- Michalis Geranios
- Editing
- Giannis Katsaboulas, Stavros Psillakis
- Original music – Mixing & sound studios
- Vangelis Fampas, “Massive Productions”
- Assistant cinematography
- Manos Kritsotakis
- Producer
- Giannis Markakis, Cretan Open-Air Museum “Lychnostatis”
- Shooting locations
- Heraklion and Lasithi prefectures, 2014
Awards
- Special Jury Award — 2nd International Documentary Festival of Ierapetra (August 2015)
- Honorary Distinction — 9th Chalkida Greek Documentary Festival (October 2015)
- 1st Award — Official Winner, Best Feature Documentary, Around Films International Film Festival (A.R.F.F.), February 2016
- 1st Award, 9th annual London Greek Film Festival (L.G.F.F.) — shared with the documentary Argo Navis — and Music Award at the same festival (May 2016)
Director’s note
The film The Light Within was born from Giannis Markakis's wish for a cinematic portrait of his father. Its starting point was, in a way, a commission — as if one were to approach a painter one admires and ask them to paint a beloved face.
This dimension does not act as a constraint, nor does it diminish the autonomy of the cinematic gaze. On the contrary, it sets from the outset a framework of trust. The film does not begin from the need to document, but from a conscious choice: a son's decision to stand before his father not as a given fact, but as the human being who deeply shaped him.
Giorgis Markakis speaks of his life with no intention of apology or idealization. His words move between light and tears, between knowledge and experience, between memory and the present. The Museum of Traditional Cretan Life “Lychnostatis” functions in the film not as an exhibit, but as an extension of a way of life, where people, objects and memories coexist organically.
In The Light Within, I tried to stand with the utmost discretion before both of them: the father who speaks and the son who chose him. To let the words, the pauses and the gaze lead the film. Not to create a eulogy, but to achieve a clear portrait — a meeting where cinema does not illuminate from outside, but meets that light which already exists within.
Full transcript
Photographs
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